WORCESTER — The panel of educators and advocates who picked the National High School Principal of the Year had a weighty trio of finalists from which to choose. They could have gone with an accomplished principal from Everett, Wash., who focused intensively on English and math.

They could have picked the principal of Columbine High School in Colorado, who saw his school through a tragedy so staggering that it became a household word.

Instead, they chose a woman from Worcester.

The national spotlight shone Tuesday on Sheila M. Harrity, whose record of exceeding expectations may have started when she was a second-grader playing on the boys' basketball team at Midland Street School. These days she is the leader of a far larger school: the 1,355-student Worcester Technical High School, which has won local, statewide and national attention for its work.

State Secretary of Education Matthew Malone told the students, staff and dignitaries in the school's auditorium Tuesday that he asks a simple question several times a week when people tell him vocational education can't be improved: 'Have you visited Worcester Tech?'

"At the end of the day, there is one place in this state where it is really working," he said, and went on to praise Ms. Harrity for her distributive leadership style and for "creating great human beings, the kind of people who we want to live next to."

Ms. Harrity learned she was a finalist for MetLife/National Association of Secondary School Principals' High School Principal of the Year this summer, but did not know until Tuesday's assembly that she was the national winner. Superintendent Melinda J. Boone and other officials told her she had been asked to speak at a meeting of urban superintendents. When Ms. Harrity walked on the stage at Worcester Tech, the governor, secretary and other officials were on stage, her family was in the front row, and five students held a banner announcing the news.

"I was so nervous I couldn't read," Ms. Harrity said later.

At first, she mistook the banner for the same one that had announced her selection as state high school principal of the year. It wasn't until after Ms. Boone repeatedly urged her to read it that she caught on.

The first thing Ms. Harrity did was rush down to hug her family, including her mother, Beverly; siblings; daughters Celina and Abigail Frias; and husband, former Wachusett Superintendent Thomas G. Pandiscio.

When she returned to the stage, she smiled and shook her head for the rest of the ceremony.

"Mary O'Malley,look what you started!"

Ms. Harrity said at one point to the assistant principal who nominated her. Ms. O'Malley said later in an interview that she had seen who the nominees were in previous years, and she knew her principal was as good or better.

Ms. Harrity is the first Massachusetts principal to be named a national principal of the year in the program's 20-year history.

She has been principal of Worcester Tech since 2OO6, when the school moved into a new $90 million building designed to foster small learning communities and link academics with trades. Before that, she was principal of Wachusett Regional High School in Holden for a year.

Worcester Tech's academic credentials have improved dramatically since her arrival. The percent of students scoring proficient or above on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams in English language arts rose from 27 to 88, and the percent of those scoring proficient or above on math went from 35 to 78. The school began offering Advanced Placement courses in 2OO8. The school's graduation rate, 96.4 percent, is the best in the district. Students Abigaele Mann, Omolara Ojo and Lindsey Bernier, who were among those who held Ms. Harrity's new banner, said in an interview that Ms. Harrity gets students what they need. When Abigaele approached her wanting to take nonexistent upper-level math courses, Ms. Harrity came back with new offerings including pre-calculus, Advanced Placement calculus and a partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

She also made sure students could take languages, like Spanish 1 and 2, Lindsey said.

"She supports everything that we do," Lindsey said. "I'm really glad I came to this school."

"It's the best thing that could happen to anybody," Omolara added.

Ms. Harrity, who spoke toward the end of the day's ceremony, was as gracious as she is successful. She said the school's students "are absolutely, truly amazing."

"For you, I would like to say the galaxy is the limit. Keep pushing us," the principal said.

She said she shared the recognition with Edwin B. 'Ted' Coghlin Jr., who was in the audience. He is chairman of the school's advisory board, a group of more than 350people who advise the school. Mr. Coghlin has been instrumental in facilitating companies' donations of equipment and other support to the school. Ms. Harrity's recognition, she said, would not have been possible without him. Like Ms. Harrity, he received a standing ovation.

She also praised the anonymous 'dreammaker' who pays for a motivational speaker every year at The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts. Ms. Harrity was a three-sport athlete at Doherty Memorial High School, a high school coach and an assistant basketball coach at the College of the Holy Cross, and she is a member of the Worcester Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame. Given her background in sports, she wanted to have a 'pregame talk' each year before the state standardized tests, she said, and the donor has made that come true.

She also praised City Manager Michael V. O'Brien for being the school's 'biggest cheerleader' and thanked Timothy P. Murray, former Worcester mayor and former lieutenant governor, for being 'a relentless supporter of the bulldog.' Before the school moved into its new digs, its mascot was the bulldog, and Mr. Murray, who owned one at the time, supported everything about the new school except changing its mascot to the eagle.

Finally, Ms. Harrity thanked her family and dedicated the award to her grandmother, Mary D. Booden, who passed away in 2OO9. "She's my rock," Ms. Harrity said. "She's been the foundation for everything."

Ms. Harrity also spoke of the award's importance in terms of bringing people together and getting them excited about the school. In an interview, she added that she hopes the school will be a model for other districts and noted that it is already a frequent host to visitors.

The award comes with a $5,OOO grant which must be used to improve learning at the school.

Ms. Harrity will be honored Sept. 20 during a black-tie gala in Washington, D.C.

The National Middle School Principal of the Year is Sheena Alaiasa of Hawaii.

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